Scott Guberman has been a professional rock pianist for years now. He’s Deadhead thru and through who first saw the Grateful Dead in the Brent Mydland-era and never looked back. Destiny brought Scott and his wife out to the San Francisco Bay Area to inevitably become an integral part of Terrapin Crossroads musical community.

Last Sunday, March 12, the Chicago-based progressive aggressive improvisational six piece known as Umphrey’s McGee crammed themselves, their full arsenal of gear and a fraction of their typical lighting array onto The Grate Room stage at Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael, CA.

2016 was a big year for psychedelic rock pioneer David Nelson and his longtime David Nelson Band. Nelson alongside veteran members Barry Sless (guitars, Pedal Steel Guitar), Mookie Siegel (keyboard, organ, vocals), Pete Sears (Modulus bass, vocals), and John Molo (drums) had their biggest tour in at least a decade, hitting the East Coast and Colorado for the first time in a long time.

Four years into the Terrapin Crossroads experience, a multipurpose Marin County destination at which proprietor Phil Lesh of The Grateful Dead fame presides, the grand opening of the venue’s Backyard took place on April 17 in sunny, celebratory fashion with a headlining three-set Phil Lesh & Friends concert. This marked a major achievement for the venue that already offers a fine local-sourced restaurant, and concert settings that include The Grate Room and the smaller bar stage.

On Friday night, Goodnight, Texas & Midnight North descended on Phil Lesh’s own The Grate Room @ Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael.  This was the first time GN, TX played together at Terrapin, meanwhile Midnight North has been a resident artist since their inception in 2013.  The night was met with additional anticipation as Phil Lesh was billed as a guest bassist

Thirty minutes before show time on February 9, the musicians had all arrived at Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael, California, but band leader Dan “Lebo” Lebowitz was not finished prepping. Backstage, Lebo, bass player Steve Adams, and a three-piece brass section worked on a special arrangement of “China Cat Sunflower” that sounded like a tie-dyed New Orleans Mardis Gras Brass Band.

David Nelson’s long strange trip dates back just as far as the Grateful Dead’s. Nelson, Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter were all pals from the Dead’s humble beginnings in Palo Alto. He was there for the acid tests, he saw the San Francisco scene blow up only a few years later, and of course cofounded New Riders of the Purple Sage with Garcia and John “Marmaduke” Dawson.

I first saw Jorma play an acoustic solo show in 1980 at the Palace Theatre in Albany, New York.  I remember shooting a bunch of photos of him playing that night, and I tried to find my film negatives before seeing him Friday night at Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael, California.  I wasn’t able to find my old pics, but I’m glad I couldn’t.  Because to really experience the wonder that is Jorma (instant recognition from just his first name speaks to his sing

It’s a little bit strange that in 2015, almost twenty years since drummer Dave Watts began holding impromptu free form improvised funk jams under the moniker Motet, that now the band is finally getting the national recognition it’s due. Maybe it really isn’t so surprising. They spent their formative years developing original material and finding the right full-time players and much of the 2000s throwing impressive tribute shows to the finest icons of rock, funk, soul, jazz and disco.

It was bound to happen that the San Francisco-based Brothers Comatose, one of the hottest bohemian bluegrass bands on the circuit would wind up pickin’ and grinnin’ from the Terrapin Crossroads stage at Phil Lesh’s lair in San Rafael, California.